A Christmas Gardening Tip

It’s a strange time to be thinking about gardening: the ground is frozen, the plants are dormant, and snowdrifts are covering the garden beds. But here’s a handy gardening tip that may be useful now. What’s the biggest pest in your garden? In mine it’s the neighbourhood cats. I’m a cat fan, but not when they’re using my garden as a litter box.

I’ve tried many solutions: deterrent spray, hot pepper flakes, bamboo skewers. But the only one that’s worked consistently, without being terribly ugly: pine branches. So, after Christmas I toss the bare Christmas tree out in the backyard. In the spring, as the ground softens up, I cut the branches off the tree (a reciprocating saw or large loppers work well). Then any bare cat-friendly ground gets covered with the branches. The branches still let air and sunlight through, so plants come up and I can move the branches out of the way.